Sermon Tone Analysis
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Growing up, Holy week was an interesting time for me.
I always thought of it with very happy thoughts.
It is almost as if I would skip from Palm Sunday straight through Easter without giving much thought to the other events of the week.
As I have aged, my perspective has changed just a bit.
Not to come into this week with somber thoughts necessarily, but to come into it with more introspections and even respect for the events of the week.
So, today, I thought it would be appropriate to look at these events and see what we can drawl from them.
So, we begin out week with:
Palm Sunday
Jesus is on His way to Jerusalem, where He is going to be crucified.
He is on His way to the cross.
As He comes towards the city, He hangs out at the Mount of Olives and sends two disciples to go into town where there will be a donkey tied up.
Grab it and bring it out to me.
If anyones asks, tell them that the Lord needs it.
This is to happen to fill Zechariah’s prophecy in 9:9
So, Jesus is going to begin this week with fulfilling a prophecy.
I wonder if the people there made this connection.
Jesus’ justification for the donkey was “that the Lord needs them”
And then He is clearly fulfilling this Old Testament prophecy.
I am not sure, but it is interesting.
Nevertheless, Here He comes riding in on a donkey.
It is apparent that the people acknowledged who Jesus is at this time as they modeled the disciple’s example by laying their coats on the ground.
This is as if they are giving Him the “red carpet” treatment.
The people laid palm branches on the road and waved them as Jesus passed by.
And they would exclaim:
Hosanna which means to save, but had become a broader meaning of celebration.
“Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord” which is Psalm 118, and, according to one commentary, is
Matthew (A.
The King Enters His City with Triumph and Meekness (21:1–11))
“psalm of ascent,” sung as the people ascended toward the temple in Jerusalem for worship, inviting others “with boughs in hand” to “join in the festal procession”
Here we have this image of the coming King, riding on a donkey that was prophesied before where they people are giving praise and quoting the Psalm that was customary for the entrance into the temple for worship.
And, this is the image of Holy Week that has always been in my mind, but then we take a quick turn in a different direction....
Jesus gets into Jerusalem and goes to the temple
Jesus Clears the Temple
As He goes into the temple he sees money changers buying and selling doves and other animals.
Now, buying and selling animals wasn’t really out of the norm as often times the leaders in the church would sell doves for the poor people and lambs for the wealthier people to sacrifice.
It would be easier for those that traveled a distance to make their sacrifices for them to carry money on the journey, than to carry animals.
But, there was a couple issues here.
They didn’t need to be doing this in the temple as they could do it outside
They were clearly being unfair and making a pretty profit off of it as Jesus refers to them as “a den of robbers” hinting that they were being unfair in what they were making.
I’d also like to note that the benches that He turned over were those of the ones selling doves…remember, the doves were for the poor people who couldn’t afford the larger animals.
It is possible that part of the reason He was upset is that they were taking advantage of the poor?
So Jesus is upset as they were using the house of Lord for their own selfish gain.
Now, I am not sure that the events of Holy Week are a prescription for how we are to go to the cross and ultimately the resurrection, but if I might say, I’d say that there is some things we can learn.
The first being that this week may we
Examine our Hearts
Are we like the people in the streets praising Jesus, or are we like the robbers in the temple courts being selfish?
Are we exploiting what God wants from us for our own personal gain?
In verse 15 we see an interesting contracts in two hearts
So, we have the religious leaders in the temple tying to make a dollar and then we have the children in the streets praising Jesus
In Mark’s version it’s clear the leaders were not happy
So, here we have the leaders so upset at Jesus that they are trying to find a way to kill Him, but we have crowd who was amazed at Him.
Jesus is going to indirectly address the religious leaders with what happens next.
Jesus Curses the Fig Tree
We are reading in Matthew and in his versions he puts the whole story of the fig tree together, but in Mark’s version Jesus curses the fig tree on His way to Jerusalem and then returns the next day and it’s withered.
So, basically what happens is Jesus is hungry and walks by the tree, it had no fruit so Jesus curses it and it withers.
Here we see this indirect comparison between the church leaders and the fig tree.
It is possible that the pressure of the cross is getting to Jesus in this moment as this is the only destructive miracle that we see of him.
So, was he reacting in the flesh to also teach a lesson?
Interesting.
Regardless, the comparison is the religious elites who don’t get who Jesus is.
They are like the fig tree who don’t bear fruit.
They fail to believe in who Jesus is and will not bear fruit.
On the contrast, those who have faith and believe in Jesus, can pray for mountains to be moved and they will.
Or, said another way, those who are concerned with their own gains and “looking the part” will not bare fruit, but those who have faith and believe in Jesus will bear fruit.
Jesus Questioned
Jesus then enters the temple courts and is questioned as they were trying to trap Him.
Like always, He counters their questions to which they have no answer.
Parables
Now, Jesus is going to start really ticking the leaders off.
He starts with the parable of the two sons
The father tells them to go work in the vineyard
The one said he wouldn’t but later changes his mind and goes and works
The second says that he would, but doesn’t go to work
Jesus sums it up by saying
So, he tells the religious leaders that the tax collectors and prostitutes would enter heaven before the leaders, why?
Because they proclaim the coming messiah, but reject Him when He has come.
Whereas the sinners accept Him.
Then the parable of the tenants where basically Jesus is pointing out again how the leaders reject Him and they will be judged for it.
So, Jesus has basically ticked of the religious leaders and this goes on for another couple of days.
In Matthew 24 we get to the big passage about the destruction of the temple and end times prophecies.
In 26, the final straw has been laid and they are going to arrest Jesus, but not during the passover.
Jesus is then anointed by Mary in Bethany, which is a crazy awesome fortelling of who Jesus is and what He is about to do.
And now, we are at:
The Passover Meal
Read John 13-17
Worship Team
Then Jesus goes to the garden.
He takes His disciples with Him to pray.
They fall asleep.
Jesus asks the Father to take this cup from Him
Jesus is arrested.
Peter denies.
Jesus is accused.
He is sentenced.
The crowd who shouted Hosana - save us!
Now shouts, crucify Him!
He is beaten.
He is tortured.
And He is hung on a cross.
He says “father forgive them, for they know not what they are doing.”
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